WATERVILLE — For just the second time in more than 50 years, the Colby men’s basketball program will have a new coach.

Damien Strahorn is out as coach of the Mules, the Morning Sentinel learned Thursday. The 2002 Colby graduate had coached the program since 2011 after coming to Mayflower Hill from Plymouth State.

In an email sent to Colby alumni and obtained by the Morning Sentinel, Athletic Director Amanda DeMartino said she had “made a decision to seek new leadership and direction for the Colby Men’s Basketball Program.” The school, she said, will begin a nationwide search for his replacement.

“We are grateful for (Damien’s) long service, hard work, dedication and mentorship to the many outstanding students he coached,” DeMartino wrote in the email. “I sincerely wish him and his family the best in their next endeavors.”

Strahorn declined to comment on his dismissal from Colby. DeMartino did not return a call seeking comment on the coaching change.

Strahorn compiled a 179-150 record at Colby, including 47-83 in New England Small College Athletic Conference play. The Mules were NESCAC runners-up in 2019-20, in which it went 24-4 and appeared in the NCAA tournament for just the fourth time in program history.

Strahorn was an All-NESCAC player at Colby under coach Dick Whitmore, who led the Mules for 41 seasons before Strahorn succeeded him as coach. He was also an assistant at Colby from 2002-06 and at Columbia from 2006-10 before serving as Plymouth State’s head coach for one year.

As Colby’s head coach, Strahorn had also run Pine Tree Basketball Camp since 2011. The camp, one of the most renowned in Maine youth sports, had been implemented by Whitmore and Thomas College and UMaine-Farmington men’s coach Dick Meader in 1974.